A study of official sources by Schools Week last month showed that at least 17 academy trusts had been given thousands of pounds to prepare for sponsorship but had not taken on or opened any school.
"Interpreting their statements may not be as much a science as an art," said Changyong Choi, a North Korea scholar at Syracuse University in New York State who has made a study of official news reports from the North.
In a study of official data and newspaper reports of the Olympic host city, the civil rights groups found that almost one in six homicides were carried out by on-duty policy officers as part of a "strategy of fear" in favela communities.
Veteran activist John Prendergast said: "This is not a study of a few corrupt officials in Africa … What it is is an attempt to get at the nexus of what drives violent conflict and mass atrocities in South Sudan: the connection between endemic corruption and deadly violence and about how these networks benefit from a system that's built on corruption and uses extreme violence to keep in place".
In February, even as the department was beginning a study of its Sept. 11 response, fire officials declined invitations to listen to the Port Authority's tape, which was recovered by Port Authority police officers from the rubble.
Separately, federal health officials said a study of flu genes released Friday showed that the virus could have been circulating undetected in pigs for years, and called for better surveillance.
New York State environmental officials commissioned a study of impacts of natural gas hydraulic fracturing from a consulting firm that counts oil and gas companies among its clients and that could gain business from increased drilling in the state.
Ten months after the Sept. 11 attacks that left 343 firefighters dead, and five months after fire officials undertook a study of just what happened, the Fire Department has yet to review a potentially critical trove of information: a tape of radio transmissions among firefighters at the World Trade Center that morning.
City Commissioner Robert Heasley was on a golf course two hours away from home when he got the news: Michigan officials, in a study of the state's drinking water, had the results for his city's supply.
During the 2-year cleanup, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in collaboration with county and city health officials conducted a study of exposure and health effects among residents.
